What's hot right now-what journalists actually want from business owners in 2025 - Jenna Farmer

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00:01 Hi everyone and welcome to this audio training all about what is hot when getting your business in the media in 2025 I'm Jenna APR expert that works with lots of business owners to get them all over the media and I'm really passionate about showing you how easy and accessible this can be. In this audio training, I'm going to break down some really simple things that show you what is hot right now to get your business in the media. And there will be some links on different things I can offer to help you on that journey. 

00:33 So the first thing that I wanted to talk to you about is something that is super important in 2025 in my experience is creating those personal connections. So just like when you're thinking in business, sending everyone the exact same email, sending every journalist the exact same email is not going to cut you anymore. So just like in business, maybe you're taking a more personalized approach. Maybe you're reaching out to business owners in the DMS and building conversations with them. It's exactly the same with journalists. So what isn't working, which might have worked 10 years ago, is creating a press release about your new idea and just sending it out to 100 people at the same time. 

01:13 What is working is really building those connections and relationships, and that's probably going to be the same across all of your business but it's particularly relevant in PR. It's easier than ever, especially easier than it was 10 or 20 years ago. They really connect with journalists. They really make this kind. So many journalists are now on social media, so many publications, when you find them, we'll share with you the journalist contact information or the journalist social media handles because journalists really need good stories so a lot of publications actively encourage you to reach out to them. 

01:50
So if it is on your vision board to be in forced or to be in Business Insider, rather than send it to every single person that forms a Business Insider. That personalized connection where you really take the time to build a relationship with the journalist is really going to help you. And you can do this in lots of different ways. The first thing is to take the time to really understand the journalist and the publication. So again, what we're not doing in 2025 is sending loads of magazines the same pitch. Instead, we're going to really look at the magazine and think about what does this magazine cover? What is their audience demographic? How can I fit this style? So just like, for example, when you're thinking on your Instagram, what is my ideal audience wanting what problems am I solving for them? We're doing the same when we're looking for publications. 

02:42 It's not just about us trying to shoehorn our idea into publication. Instead, it's about really taking the time to read a publication. If you want to be informed, find 10 senior contributors and really read about what they're writing. Does your messaging, does your style, does what you want to talk about fitting with them, how can you offer value to them? And changing that mindset where it's all about building those personal relationships is really important. 

03:10 We don't even necessarily have to email them to do that. So many journalists are on social media, it's easier than ever to find them on Twitter or Instagram and reach out to them. What is really key right now what I am seeing is the relationships builded by value. Now, when we talk about PR and we talk about the media world, people often think that it's really glamorous. People think that the only way to get into the media is to take a journalist out for drinks or know all the right contacts or socialise and smooth. And actually that has completely changed now. The way that we're building relationships journalists is offering them value in terms of a great story. 

03:51 You don't have to do face to face networking, you don't have to know all the right people. You don't have to have been in the industry for a long time. You just need to have a really great story. And actually the landscape of journalism is changing because what we're seeing more in 2025 and in the last few years are more freelance journalists so there's less journalists working at a single publication, and many publications that you read will have a sort of skeleton and staff where they don't have as many staff members as usual. 

04:21 So a lot of journalists are freelance and write for multiple publications. And I think this change can be really good for business owners because freelance journalists always need new story ideas. They don't work at single magazine anymore or single newspaper. So they don't have that place to bounce off ideas. So often they're constantly looking for ideas to pitch to editors, to pitch to different magazines, and that's where business owners can really come in because they need stories and we have our stories for our business. We like the journeys also write across multiple publications so building a relationship and being really supportive and helpful for them means that you might then get featured across multiple publications too. 

05:02 Another thing that's really changed in 2025 and certainly since I entered the media world is actually understanding what journalists need. Now journalists really need things that are going to generate traffic and this has been less through when we talked about Think Magazine, but now everything is online and socially driven. This is even more true. I know lots of journalists who have certain targets to meet in terms of traffic and that means that they need to get a certain amount of views per article. 

05:31 And traffic is really in the forefront of lots of journalists mind now. So we need to understand that even if we've got a really great story, we have to think about how that is going to support the journalist i'll give you 1 tip it's all about changing your mindset. We're not selling a story we are adding value to the journalist. What are the types of stories and understanding what they need is really important. So how do journalists get traffic? Well, they're going to get traffic usually by two different ways. It's either going to be one of those stories that everyone is clicking share and sending to their friends and tagging their friends online, or it's going to be the type of story that we're Googling and we're searching and  t's going to be high on the SEO ranks of just understanding that and realising in a predominantly online world where lots of print publications have closed down in the last few years, many journalists are going to have that mindset of how in this article that you're pitching them is going to bring you traffic. 

06:28 So if you can highlight that, such as this is a super topical thing at the moment on social media or this is something that lots of people are searching for, then that's really going to help answer that question for the journalists and increase your chances of getting a yes because of these i think the types of stories have changed over the last few years. Now of course, we still do have print magazines, but a lot of the journalists are working on online titles. 

06:54 That means the sorts of stories that are really important are those that are going to get shared. Just have a think about if you scroll on Facebook and you see a news organization, what are the stories that people are tagging all their friends in the comments? That is going to be the sorts of stories that journalists want. So what do they look like i just break this down into a few different things and I think anyone can create a story that is really socially share worthy. The first one is that people love a connection. So any type of story you have that people can really relate to, it could be a universal experience. It could be a simple part of your day that people do as well. 

07:33 It could be something that we feel something towards it doesn't have to be a really dramatic story that has this influence of tears, but it could be a story that we really empathise with. Maybe something that we don't agree with, something that we feel angry about drives us to feel something. Those stories where we relate to them because we've been there ourselves or we know someone who has all those sorts of stories that create a response whether that is, I've just read this and I want to share my admiration for the all of that or sporting it onto a friend or actually disagreeing in the comments. 

08:08 All of those sorts of stories that create some sort of emotional reaction are really key to journalists because that is what really drives that social traffic. As I said, it doesn't have to be something that is super controversial or super dramatic. Sometimes the smallest of experiences can actually be relatable and interesting. I always remember 1 where mum talked about how she just hated the school run. Now this is something that is a very universal experience in terms of lots of mums go on school runs and it might be something that you completely agree with or you disagree with. It might be something you have an emotional reaction to. 

08:44 It might be that you connect to it was just a small part of life, but it was something that really created a lot of social engagement and that in turn led to a lot of traffic for that article. Other things that worked really well for the types of stories that journalists love are transformation stories. Now loads of us have business owners have these transformational stories because maybe we have left something to start our business or maybe our business has gone through really difficult times and we have overcome it. 

09:13
So that is why we lend ourselves so to these transformational type of stories. So have a think about what is your A to B. Those things work really well when pitching the press. I was this and now I'm this that's a really good head for headline format that is working really well in 2025 Other types of stories that are really working well this year are things that are bite size for short attention. 

09:40 So just like our content that we're consuming on video has got a shorter, we're scrolling on tik tok rather than watching full features on YouTube. Our appetite for stories that are also quicker and easy to digest have gone shorter as well. So if you're listening to this, you're probably an expert in something, whether that's sales, marketing, Facebook, tik tok, any sort of business thing that you are the expert in. Journalists love short bite size things cater to a short attention span and the type of stories where an expert is solving a problem. 

10:17 Now, things that I think are really work in 2025 is that more than ever, we want the problem solved to be accessible, affordable, and solving a problem. If we think of things like nutrition, obviously nutrition is something that we've been talking about for a long time, but more than ever we want quick and easy ways to increase our nutrition and not for it to be something that's going to cost us hundreds of pounds, are going to require us to spend hours and hours outside of work. So if you can take a big topic that you cover and break it down into small bite sized things for that attention span, then that is really working right now for the media as well. 

10:57 And think about that checker list and it's sort of similar to the stuff you're doing on Instagram. If you are looking at how to work on your Instagram, a lot of the Instagram gurus will tell you about solving a problem in a really quick and simple way. And it's exactly like that for the media and sometimes we can even crossover the headlines for the media can be those captions for our Instagram posts. But think about some things that you can do that are accessible. 

11:23 That means everyone can follow. For example, if you as a personal trainer put me through a 5 minute routine that I can do without any equipment that a beginner could follow. And straight away we've made our media sound bite, more accessible, affordable. If you're a nutritionist, don't tell me that I need to spend two hundred pound on collagen or that I need to do all of these different things that are going to cost me a lot of money and mean that I've had everything from scratch because I don't have time. So accessible and affordable and solving a problem in a simple way. Now, most of what we do can't be solved in a really simple way. 

12:01 I do PR and I'm just sharing part of it here today, but I can't solve your whole media strategy in a paragraph so that we contain just one element of the problem and solve it. So let's say that you are a psychotherapist and you help people with anxiety. Now, of course you can't solve anxiety in even an article, even a single session with somebody. But could you break down maybe one simple exercise that takes 5 minutes that I could do in the morning that could just help with this particular part of anxiety or a specific situation where I feel really anxious. If you can do that and break it down, down into these accessible, affordable, simple ways to get from A to B, this will be make it so much easier to get in the media and this is something that is really, really working right now for media coverage. 

12:54 However, the next thing that is also really working is tik tok. So if you have been listening to this and thinking actually, you know, I feel more confident on social media. I've got Tiktok sorted or I've got Instagram sorted. The good news is that that can be your gateway to getting amazing, amazing media coverage too. Now more and more journalists are using Tiktok to get their stories, but that have been another big change and just in the last year or so, I have seen publications specifically recruit journalists just to get stories from Tiktok. So we know that tik tok is driving a lot of the media conversation. 

13:35 Sometimes that can be like first person stories where they talk about what's happened in the video. But other times it can be expert stories like let's say a recipe is trending on tik tok and then a publication talks about chefs sharing how to make it or maybe nutrition is sharing why it's super unhealthy or whatever that thing. There are so many trends and as experts, if we can either share our personal opinion of that trend, our personal experience, or our expertise, that can really, really help as well. 

14:07 So this is a trend that will really work for you if you're on tik tok and if you're not on tik tok, you don't necessarily have to start an account, but I would really recommend that you go through tik tok and you use it almost as a search engine, putting in the keywords around your business what are the topical things that come up? This could be something that you could pitch to the media with you as the expert talking about it. 

14:31 And the last thing that I think is really hot right now, and it's really changing in the last few years is the business owners that are actively using their PR coverage in their existing audience to really elevate their business. Now, I've shared with you some things that are really working in the media world, but one of the biggest problems a lot of business owners have is they get this press coverage, they get these by lines and features, but then then just sit back and expect it to do all the work. And I think that has really changed in the last few years where it just doesn't work like that anymore. 

15:05 Like I said to you, the attention span of people is shorter. So perhaps a few years ago, if I was reading a print magazine, I might stop and see an item that I really like and maybe get on my computer and have a look at it. But now our attention span is so short and we're so used to swiping up and clickable links that it doesn't automatically translate into an instant buying decision. We're also seeing so much more content and reading so much more content. 

15:33 Which means, of course, it's not going to have the same effect as maybe 10 years ago where we went out and bought a magazine once a week. But that's OK because it also means our chances of getting featured are a lot higher because there's so many publications online particularly, and the constant need for content to compete for that. I mean, they're looking for a lot of stories. The difference is that you can't just rely on one piece of coverage to change your business. You can't anymore get a piece of press coverage and just sit back and expect it to do all the work. 

16:09 The business owners that are killing it online and using their PR to the advantage are turning their PR coverage into social stories, blog posts, newsletters, or maybe even  unning Facebook ads with the coverage, you need to think about how can I use this coverage not only to get more followers and more people on my list, but to actually show my existing audience that I am legit, that I have authority, that I am worth buying from. 

16:37 And that is where the media really, really can help with that. It allows you to build your own unique voice that you can then share with your audience. So the biggest thing that I think is just getting more important day by day as our attention span shortens is to post about your press coverage in multiple different places and really leverage it as a tool for your marketing. Don't just talk about it on the day that it's published. Create a press page, create an Instagram highlight where it shares all your press coverage. Talk about it weekly, revisit it every so often and show your audience that you're continually getting in the media. 

17:15 One thing that has definitely changed in the last year or so is that because we've got more online stories, journalists are absolutely bombarded with emails. Which means in my experience as someone that does PR day-to-day it's getting less and less likely that a journalist will either let you know if they have featured your story or comment. But I just want to finish by talking about a few things that you can do to make sure if you are put in the work in to get your media coverage that you don't miss out, get featured and don't even realise. 

17:50 So to do that, we just want to make sure that we do these few things. The first thing I recommend everyone doing is setting up a Google alert. And you can set up a Google alert for your name. And this will just ping you an email every time you are mentioned in the media. And that is going to save you so much time because the journalist might not always email to let you know if you have spoke to a journalist, if you've shared something with them, I would recommend trying to keep track of that journalist so it's OK to email and say, would you let me know if this is going to be featured or like when so I can look out for it. 

18:23 If you know that it's going to be featured in a monthly magazine, maybe get a subscription and just try and check out a few months you don't miss it. Whatever systems you set up, it's really important to not just wait for the journalist to tell you. A simple thing, and it sounds really obvious, is to just Google yourself and click the news tab. You might be surprised that you will find press coverage that you didn't know existed. And this is a really new thing that people have to do now because journalists are just super busy and just aren't able to get back to them. 

18:55 Those are my key things that I wanted to share with you about how it's changing, but how it's still absolutely possible to get your business all over the media in 2025 You just need to make sure that you're timely, you're really listening to trends, you're able to think about how you can offer value to journalists, all those relationships and the most important part, don't forget to set up systems to keep track on if you're actually featured and leverage that as much as possible in multiple different ways to your audience. 

19:26 If you found this session useful, I'd love to connect with you and you will find links to where this presentation is to my social media. And I also have a free playbook that's specifically designed for entrepreneurs that want to get top tier media coverage. So if this is you and you really want to get in those publications like Forbes, Business Insider, whatever your ideal publication is, this free playbook is going to break it down step by step on how you can reach out to and get amazing media coverage from these top tier publication. 

19:57 The link to that is where this presentation is so you can click and grab your playbook for free. And I look forward to how can you get in all over the media.